Tom Tourmaline Wilson (Gemsona story)
by Captain Gloom
Summary: A short (kinda) story about my gemsona, a half gem called Tom Tourmaline Wilson. Don't worry, it's not as lore breaking as some other fanfics. Please, if you see something wrong in it, tell me. I love feedback!


PROLOGUE

He was dying. Simple as that. The moment felt like hours. He was falling over, in a one-legged matrix pose, but knew he wouldn't have to worry of how hard he hit the floor, corpses usually didn't. The room was bright, really bright. The light burnt him, and made his final breath feel like fire. He felt his skin, his hair, every part of him begin to break apart, cell by cell. He felt his lungs, his heart, and his brain begin to shut down. He was getting sleepy. By now he was half way to the floor, and he was half gone. His sight began to fade, one of the last things he saw was on his right thigh, a lightning bolt shaped gem, his gem. It was still intact, unlike the rest of him. It was almost over now, and he had his last thought, and his final breath ended. He thought of the waves, and the sparkling ocean he saw when the final leg of his journey to incineration began.

CHAPTER 1

(Huge thanks to Siobhan Sullivan for editing the first chapter!)

It was a fairly warm morning in Beach City, as a bus came to a slow stop at the station. A small group of people got off, including a young man by the name of Tom. He was in his early twenties. Blonde hair, with a streak of dark blue, covered one eye. He wore long blue jeans and a white shirt with a star on it. He stepped off the bus, and breathed in the warm ocean breeze, taking in the view of Beach City, and the sparkling ocean. The trip from the bus station to the town was longer than Tom would have liked. Why wouldn't it be close to the center of the town? It made no sense to him. He thought about what would make someone put the bus stop where it was as he walked, which was the main reason he almost walked into people several times.

Tom dropped to one knee between the towns' arcade and a fries restaurant, taking off his grey backpack, that he had been wearing on one shoulder. He removed a rather small piece of pink paper. He sat on a nearby bench, and carefully re-read the message on the paper, like he had a hundred times before. In the most formal of hand writing, it was a single sentence, a quest of sorts, addressed solely to him.

"Find the Crystal Gems"

Tom frowned, and reflected on the events that led him to be spending his time finding some mysterious group of people. He assumed it was a group of people anyway, it'd be rather embarrassing if what he was looking for turned out to be nothing more than a crystals museum or something like that. His father, named Tristan Wilson, was an explorer 'back in the day'. Tristan could, and would talk for hours of his exploits in his youth. It was quite amusing to Tom to listen to him, trying to figure out what happened, and what his father had only wished he had done. His favourite story to tell was how he met Tom's mother. The two were exploring the same cave, and bumped into each other. They fell in love, and were together ever since. Unfortunately, Tom's mother died during child birth, so Tom had no idea what she was like, or even how she looked. Tristan, although he liked to talk about how they met, didn't like to talk about Tom's mother. Tom had spent his childhood living with his father in Ocean Town, living life like every other normal kid. However, a year after Tom left home, and exactly on his 19th birthday, his father's home went up in flames, with Tristan inside it.

In his will, Tristan left Tom the normal things, well, normal things for a will to have. One thing however, was from his mother, to be given to him after his father's death. It was this small piece of pink paper, with a message from his mother. Tom didn't know what exactly what it was about this piece of paper that felt so important. Was it that this was the first and only message he'd ever gotten directly from his mother to him? The fact that it relied on his mother dying first? Or was it that it was such a strange question to ask? Tom deducted from the request that there was something about his mother that couldn't be just told to him after his parents' deaths. It would have had to have been rather large to warrant a wild goose chase for such a vague term.

Tom spent half a year scouring the internet trying to find out what these 'Crystal Gems' were. He looked at everything from actual gemstones, to obscure music groups. Eventually, he found a blog. The blog was called "Keep Beach City Weird" It had, among some lame conspiracy theories, a few stories of people with what appeared to be strange birthmarks that looked like gemstones. Was this the connection with the "Crystal Gems" that Tom was searching for? There was only one way to find out. So, he left home on a "vacation" to Beach City to find out if there were any ties to the mysterious group he was searching for.

His watch read a time of half past four in the afternoon, and Tom decided to ask around for the author of the blog. It didn't take very long to find him. He spent a lot of time in a lighthouse, on a cliff at the very edge of town. The conversation they had went for almost an hour, and was beginning to turn into a lost cause, as the author "Ronaldo" wouldn't let him speak for more than two seconds before he went on another insane conspiracy theory. Tom was about to leave, when Ronaldo mention the Crystal Gems. Ronaldo gave a quick explanation of who they were, that they were a group of three women, with a child named "Steven", they kept to themselves in a house at the cliff face. Tom ended the conversation as quickly as he could, and sprinted as fast as he could down the hill, noticing he was going vastly faster than he normally could run. His time spent with the Ronaldo was longer than he realized, and as he ran he watched the final rays of the sun begin to fade away. He got to the beach, and ran down its length, but slowed, as a large hand came into view, high in the air. It was stone, coming out of the cliff further along the cliff face. As he moved, his mouth dropped further and further.

What stood before him, was a massive statue. It had four visible pairs of arms, four hands seemed to clasped a small house at its belly, three other of the hands were broken off, a few visible on the beach, while the last one in the air seemed to be holding something. Tom squinted to see what it was. It looked like a washing machine and washing line, with red shirts on it. After he finished taking in the magnitude of the colossal thing, Tom walked up the little hill to the house, up the front stair, and knocked on the door. A very young voice came from within the dwelling, telling him to wait a minute. After this, a small boy came to the door, and opened it. His hair was curly and dark. He wore a red shirt with a big yellow star, blue jeans, salmon thongs (or flip flops for non-Australians), and wore the biggest smile Tom had ever seen on his face.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

CHAPTER 2

Tom sat on a folding chair on the front deck of Steven's house, his hands grasping a cup of steaming coffee, his uncovered eye, revealing his stress, focused on the deep blue waves gently washing over the beach, then retreating, back and forth, again and again. The moon light made the waves sparkle, making the whole beach look magical, and peaceful. Steven had been no help with finding out what the Crystal Gems were. He just kept spouting nonsense, like "alien rocks" and "magic" Steven hesitated on that last point, like he himself wasn't sure if it was true. Eventually Steven decided to wait and let the crystal gems confirm his story, which Tom was completely ok with. He'd searched for six months for the Crystal Gems, he could wait a little longer.

It was another half an hour till the Crystal Gems arrived, which Steven spent bombarding Tom with questions of his past. Tom answered them, causing concern to spread on Steven's face more and more. Suddenly, just before Tom mentioned the house fire, there was an explosion of light from within the house, causing Tom to spill the last bit of his coffee. Steven on the other hand seemed excited. (Author's note: I am truly sorry everyone. I've been trying to describe the inside of Steven's house for the last 2 months, but I just can't find a way that works well. I'm going to have to assume you all know what it looks like. I know you all probably do, but I don't want to be a lazy author.)

Three women were now in the house, standing on a strange platform at the far end of the house. One of them was tall, and thin. She had pale skin, and dressed like a ballerina. Tom noted the strange object sticking out of her fore head, which looked like a shiny rock. The second was even taller than the first, with cerise colored skin, and the strangest hair Tom had ever seen. It was large, and in the shape of a near perfect cube. She wore a visor, which hid her eyes, making her very intimidating. The third, in Tom's opinion, was the strangest of the three. She was short, around the same height as Steven, and her skin was entirely purple. Her hair was long and silver, it flowed from her head down her back. She looked tired. Tom noted that there was a purple shiny rock almost hidden under her shirt.

"Oh, Steven, who's you're new friend?" The thin one asked, in a calm voice that reminded Tom of a posh elderly woman.

"I-I'm Tom"

"You're not going to believe what Tom told me, Pearl!" Steven exclaimed. The squared hair one took a few steps forward, till she was looming over Tom, clearly trying even more to intimidate him.

"Explain yourself" She said, in a cold, but oddly beautiful voice. So, that's what Tom did. He sat down on the couch by the front window, and told them the story of how he got there, which Tom realized he had been doing a lot recently. As he told it, he noticed the faces of each of the women change. They grew more and more concerned.

"Tell me." Pearl said. "Was your mother…. Human?"

Tom thought for a moment. Of course, his mother was human. Why wouldn't she be? "I don't know, I never met her, and dad never told me anything about her."

Pearl and the intimidating one looked at each other for a moment. "What do you think, Garnet?" Pearl asked. Garnet stood silent for an impossibly long moment. "Tom, do you have a gem on your body?"

"Well, I'm not sure about a 'gem', but I do have a really weird birthmark on my leg." Tom said, unsure if it was relevant.

"Let us see it!" Pearl almost screeched. Tom quickly felt embarrassed, starting to regret coming. "I… I don't think that's necessary" Tom said, getting up and backing towards the door.

"Can you at least tell us what it looks like?" Pearl asked, starting to sound frantic. Tom was opening the door, and decided he may as well tell them before he left. "It's Yellow, in the shape of a lightning bolt, and it's on my leg right around here." Tom poked a spot on his right thigh, which was bulged out a small amount. Tom was walking out the door. He had had enough of these nut cases. He was sure they didn't actually know anything, but then garnet yelled to him. "Yellow Tourmaline!"

Tom stopped dead in his tracks. "How… did you know my middle name?"

"Ha, this is getting good!" It was the short purple one. She had been quietly sitting on the other couch for this entire time, Tom thought she was sleeping, but now she was up, an excited look on her face, and popcorn in her hand.

"Your middle name's Yellow Tourmaline?" Pearl asked. She knew something. Tom could see it in her face. A tidal wave of emotion swept over Tom. He was about to get answers. Finally, he would know about his mother.

"No, it's just Tourmaline. Why did you say 'Yellow' Tourmaline?" Tom asked. He started feeling sick. That name. What was it about that name that felt like a punch in the gut?

"Tom, have you had a strange childhood? Anything strange happen that you can't give reason for?" It was Garnet asking the questions now. It seemed she too knew something. "Has anything… come out of your gem? Like a weapon?"

"No…. "

"It's too much to be a coincidence." Pearl announced. "It seems Yellow Tourmaline survived. I can't believe it, I saw a home world gem take her. How on Earth could she have survived?"

"Who?" Tom asked. He started to think maybe Steven's story of alien rocks might be more true than he first thought.

There was a large bump, shoving her back to reality. She cursed, and took to the controls, the green light illuminating the dark cockpit. She'd gone into deep though for a while again. She knew she couldn't afford to do that, not when she's so close to her mission. She began her final decent, and things got bumpy. An alarm sounded, notifying her of her speed, and the ever-lowering distance between herself and a bad case of the shatters. Being the elegant, and clever pilot that she wasn't, she began the procedures for landing, hoping the speed would decrease enough on its own. The landing site was coming up fast, she could see the two other ships parked neatly beside each other, and checked if her current course would land her safely next to them. Displeased with the answer, she did everything in her power to slow the ship down, noting her extreme grace, or lack thereof in the process. As the ground grew closer, a notification appeared.

"Remote control engaged" It read. Down below, she could see them. The other scouts, laughing so hard they almost poofed. This wasn't going to go away any time soon, she thought, as she left the now calm Cockpit, and briskly walked to the main exit of the ship. The door opened with a slight jolt, and she stepped off onto the alien planet. She felt the grass under her feet, she surveyed the vast grassy plain that had been chosen as the main incursion spot for this new potential colony. 'Earth' is what she heard some gems say. What a strange name for a planet, Yellow Tourmaline thought. She had a feeling this was going to be quite the boring mission.

Chapter 3

The light from the sun was dwindling in the horizon, and Yellow Tourmaline was standing at attention. Her agate was giving her and the other scouts a lecture and a half on how important it was this colony to be mapped perfectly. It was Pink Diamond's first colony, after all. Each scout was given a section of the planet to map out, and return the data to the main landing site, where the map of the planet would be constructed. Yellow Tourmaline praised her diamond, as she was told that her section was mostly on land, (In what would eventually be called U.S.A.). She felt sorry for the poor scouts that would have to comb the ocean floor. She knew from experience how much of a pain that was, not to mention the elevated danger, what with currents and sea creatures.

As the final beams of light died out, when the agate was done with her constant lectures, screaming, and general annoyance, she let the scouts go and start finally doing their jobs. Yellow took a quick look at the big, blank, blue rectangle hologram, that would eventually be a detailed map of the globe. At its base, there was a solid pink cylinder, which projected the hologram. Yellow had heard of new technology being developed on Home World that could do an even better job than any scout mapping the planet, and it could do it from space. The thought of that concerned Yellow, for if this technology should be implemented, then she would be obsolete, and soon after, she'd be in pieces. She snapped back into reality, and she was running through a forest, towards her section of the planet. She noted that she really had to stop going into such deep thought, it was going to get her shattered one day. She kept running, getting faster with every step. She felt the air rushing by her, the soft leaves at her feet, crunching and rustling. She liked this place, she decided. The feeling of running here was much better than on any other planet she had run on before. Images of desolate deserts, and ocean planets swept into her mind, previous planets she'd scouted and mapped, all for nothing, as they were all deemed 'not suitable' by her agate sitting all cozy on Home World.

What brought Yellow back to reality this time, was a slap, a tumble, and a fall. She found herself falling off a cliff, with more forest below, and as far as the eye made of light could see. As she broke the leaves of the tallest trees below her, she blinked, and found herself perched perfectly on a branch. She'd E-dashed again. It had a technical name, one the other scouts insisted she used, something to do with electric shape shifting, or something like that. Yellow called it E-Dash, since she simply blinked, and appeared in the place she wanted to be, given it was close enough. From what the other scouts told her, she would turn into a bolt of lightning, her gem visible inside it, and she would leap from where she was, to where she wanted to be, and reappear in her normal body of light. She sat down, and tried to figure out what hit her. The leaves in her hair, and the painful bruise line she felt on her face indicated it was a branch that slapped her (Before you say "Gems can't get 'bruises' watch Coach Steven again, and have a look at Pearl while fighting Sugalite, she gets hurt). She checked her gem, and when she was certain there were no cracks, she created her map from it, showing the route through the forest she had taken. All scouts could create a small, 3-D map from their gems, and when they had maxed out its size, they'd return to the landing site, and upload their maps to the main map, and over the course of years, the map would be filled.

The next few decades were a blur for Yellow. She mapped, explored, and returned, again and again. She spent entire years not seeing another gem. After the first few though, the planet was deemed suitable, and more gems arrived. Structures were being built, a warp system was being put in place, making Yellow's job much easier. Things were going well, until one day, Yellow had been given an extra section, as the scout that had been mapping it disappeared. Annoyed of the increased work load, but glad to be useful, Yellow finished her section, then moved on to the missing gem's. She was sprinting through a desert in the middle of the night, head in the sky, thoughts in a far-off place, until she heard a voice.

"Hello there" It said. Shocked, Yellow stumbled and fell, her head almost buried in the sand. The voice laughed, and a shadow loomed over her.

"Are you alright?" She was big. She had long, pink, curly, ringlet hair. She wore a strapless white dress, that touched the sand. She held out her hand, and helped Yellow Tourmaline to stand up.

"I-I'm alright." Yellow said, embarrassed of her inelegant fall. "Who are you? I've never seen a gem like you before."

The gem laughed.

"I'm Rose Quartz." She sat down, and looked up at the stars. "Isn't it a wonderful view?"

Yellow felt quite confused. She had seen the night sky on Earth plenty before, and it wasn't that different from any other sky she'd seen on other planets.

"I…. I guess so." She said, and sat down, next to Rose. "What's your purpose, Rose Quartz?"

"I'm sorry?"

"What did were you made to do?"

"That's not important." A hint of anger laid in the large lady's voice. She got up, giving herself time to quell it. Then, she walked off into the desert. Yellow, still confused, got up and followed her.

They walked, and they talked. They talked of the sand, of the sky, and everything between. Eventually, they were on a warp pad, relieving Yellow, as her trip back to the landing site would be reduced majorly. Rose asked Yellow Tourmaline to come with her, and mentioned something about 'Crystal Gems'. Yellow got excited. Was it a new section for Home World gems? An elite team of Home World gems doing important, and exciting things to help their diamonds? She knew not, but she jumped at the opportunity, and stepped on the warp pad. They flew through the warp system, and Yellow felt the need for some clarification.

"So, what exactly do the Crystal Gems do for Home World?" She asked, now starting to fear for what she had just walked into, as Rose's normal smiling face turned stern.

"We don't serve Home World." She said. "We serve all life on this planet. We protect it from the diamonds, its beauty, its complexity, and its simplicity. That is what the Crystal Gems do."

This was quite a mind-blowing concept for Yellow. Granted, she hadn't been as loyal to the Diamonds as some soldiers she'd seen, but she'd never meaningfully betrayed them. They finished warping, and Yellow found herself on the beach. A beach she had been to not too many years ago. There were other gems here, a pearl, a bismuth, and quite a few others scattered around the place. They seemed happy to see Rose again, and looked at Yellow with concern, and distaste. Rose introduced Yellow to the rest of the Crystal Gems, and vice versa. After this, they planned as to how Yellow could help them. How they could use a scout in their attempts to stop Home World.

Yellow Tourmaline was freaking out at this point. She had walked into a gem rebellion, and highly doubted she should just leave. Sweat started rolling down her fore head, and some of the gems were noticing. One of the gems lead her towards a tent, of sorts, where she was given a mission, to prove that she could be trusted. She had to commit an act against Home World, and be seen by Home World gems while doing it. Yellow had the perfect idea for this, but was unsure if she wanted to. She took a long look at the ocean outside, how it sparkled, and the waves hit the shore. She remembered the forest, the leaves crunching beneath her feet, and the feeling of the air rushing past her. She knew that deep down she'd already made a choice.

Chapter 4

It was dark, it had been quite a while since the sun moved on for the day, and Yellow Tourmaline was sneaking through tall grass. She felt the stares of the pair of Crystal Gems assigned to witnessing her act, though she could not see them. She didn't know what type of gem they both were, and she really didn't care. She continued through the grass, until she was on the outskirts of the land site, the same one she arrived at decades ago. There was a hand full of Quartz guards, a skeleton crew. She observed them for a while, the paths they took and the blind spots, which there were plenty of. She saw the big hologram map in the center, which was almost complete. A few moments past, and Yellow made her move. She E-dashed up and on to one of the scout ships, and waited. She clutched in her hand a small device. It was a bomb, of sorts. It would fry the map, leaving it blank, and setting Home World back decades. She took her time again, and waited for the next moment to move. She found it, and dashed down to the ground, nothing between her and the hologram's base structure. She approached it, when a Quartz guard noticed her.

"Hey!" The guard yelled. "I didn't notice you entering! Haven't you heard? There's a rebellion going on. You keep sneaking around, and someone might think you're a rebel." Yellow froze. She hadn't considered that Home World didn't know she had talked to Rose Quartz, that she had been to the Rebel base, and knew its location. A thought of betrayal wondered into Yellow Tourmaline's mind, but she quickly showed it the exit. She summoned her weapon, a rather sharp yellow boomerang, and slashed. Before the guard could register what was happening, they poofed. The sound alerted the other guards, so Yellow acted quickly. With one hand, she stuck the device to the base of the hologram projector, and with the other she threw her boomerang, aiming for one of the scout ships. It ripped through two of the landing struts, causing the ship to fall over, hitting the next, and causing a domino effect. Yellow really hoped that the Crystal Gems that came with her saw that as awesomely as Yellow did. There was an explosion in one of the ships, and grass caught fire, making a ring of flames around the landing site. Yellow E-dashed to the top of one of the wrecked ships, the rest of the guards were gathered at its edge, looking up at her. She knew her next choice of words had to be epic, had to be grand, had to denounce the diamonds, and declare herself a Crystal Gem. That's what she wanted to say at least, but what she actually said was rather different. "Uah…. I did this, and um… the Earth… I'll, ugh, I'm going to fight for it!"

Inside, she was screaming, at herself, at what she had just said, and at the guards around her for not just putting her out of her misery and embarrassment right then and there. Instead, they stood there, with open mouths. It felt like an eternity that they just stood there, until the device went off. It didn't happen how Yellow thought it would. Instead of an explosion, a great big ball of crackling electricity erupted from the device, expanding rapidly. Yellow couldn't react quick enough, and was hit by it. She fell off the ship, feeling herself fall to pieces as she did. As she hit the ground, she poofed, and the electrical ball kept expanding, then dissipated when it got too big, leaving the site almost silent, the sound of the flames was all that could be heard.

The feeling of reformation was quite a strange one to Yellow Tourmaline. It was quite hard to describe, but it was extremely odd to her, since she hadn't needed to reform many times. She'd only ever been poofed a half a dozen times in the past. She found herself back at the Crystal Gem base, among smiling gems. As her hearing returned, she heard celebration. The two Crystal Gems that tagged along with her were telling them all about what had happened. She sat there for a while, just listening to them, enjoying the sensation of sound. Yellow was so glad to be alive. Falling to the ground, and feeling herself fall apart was the most horrifying thing that had ever happened to her.

The next few months were action packed. Yellow was officially a Crystal Gem, and she was doing the most she could with it. She had friends, people who cared about her. She didn't have to fear becoming obsolete anymore. Reports came in that the technology to map the planet from orbit was complete, and on its way, making Yellow's act meaningless. The Crystal Gems didn't care though. She was one of them now, and they were very pleased to have a scout with them. She was given missions every now and then, scouting and mapping out Home World controlled facilities, and pointing out weaknesses. When she wasn't on missions, she did as much as she could. She helped design defenses, she planted whole forests, she even designed a suit of armor for herself, that the Crystal Gem Bismuth actually decided to make. Granted, it didn't work very well, since she wouldn't be able to reform in it if she poofed. She kept it though, it looked amazing, and the spear the Bismuth made to go with it was just too magnificent to give away. Life was going well for Yellow, but like so many things, it had to come to an end.

It was a basic scouting operation, of the likes she'd done dozens of times. Today, she was scouting a scientific facility. The Crystal Gems wanted to know why it was so heavily guarded, and what they were making. Yellow was more than glad to have a hand in its downfall. The facility itself was inside a cave, not too far from the desert where Yellow Tourmaline first met Rose. She was sneaking her way through the cave, E-dashing every now and again. She reached the door. It was a lot subtler than she thought it would be. It was simply a door in the wall, like the door to the Crystal Gem temple. It had a diamond shape on it, with four circles, one in each corner. Two were green, one was a light blue, and one was purple. She was trying to find a way into the facility, when she felt a hand grasp her neck. Before she could even make a sound, it squeezed, poofing her.

Over her time as a Crystal Gem, she had been poofed a few more times, making the feeling of reforming more normal for Yellow. When she reformed this time however, it felt different. It felt harder to do, it took longer, like a tired body builder going for one more set. She felt sick, but opened her eyes, and observed her surroundings. She was inside the facility still. It was dark, but a flashlight was aimed at her adjusting eyes.

"What… What are you?" A voice said, coming from the source of the light. She could see who it was now, and was quite surprised. It was a human. A male, who looked to be in his late twenties. He had brown hair, was tall, and well built. He wore cave diving gear, and was quite handsome. She got up, and inspected the facility. It was dusty, there were tables flipped over, and vials smashed on the floor. She walked over to one table that wasn't flipped. There was an odd machine on it, which looked like a blow torch on a robotic arm. From the base of the machine, a thick black cable rose to the ceiling, and running to behind Yellow. She turned around, and saw it. A machine, it was a cube, with an indentation on it, in the shape of a lightning bolt. Not just any, but her lightning bolt shape. It clicked in her mind. It was a power source, it was the reason her reformation felt weird, the reason it took so long, and the reason she felt so sick. They had been draining her energy to power this place. She turned to the human. "How did you get in here?"

He pointed at an open door to his right, it was the door to the cave, and was ajar, as functional as the rest of the facility. He hesitated for a moment. "Answer my question."

"I'm a Crystal Gem. How long was I gone for?" She asked, panic in her voice.

"A what? Are you some kind of science experiment? Listen, can we talk outside of the cave? This place is giving me the creeps."

She nodded. She wanted to get out too. She hadn't fully gotten her head around what had been done to her in here, but she didn't want to stay to find out. The two climbed out of the cave, talking the whole way. It seemed that Yellow Tourmaline had been in the facility for a long time. A lot longer than she would have liked, and since the Earth was still alive, and the facility was abandoned, she could deduce that the war was over. The Crystal Gems won. The man offered for Yellow to stay at his house for a while. She really wanted to get back to the temple, and let them know she's still alive, but she felt awfully weak, so she accepted his offer, at least until she felt better. She never got better.

She eventually fell in love with the man, Tristan his name was. She couldn't return to the Crystal Gems, after what Home World did to her in the science facility, she felt weaker every day, and she knew that the end was coming. One thing led to another, and Yellow fell pregnant. Not knowing what the future held, she planned for the worst, and wrote a note for her son.

Chapter 5

It was a particularly warm summer night in Empire City. People were asleep in bed, trying to get through the heat. On one dark street, however, there was a man, sprinting. Running from what was sure to be his doom. His blonde hair stuck to his head, damp with sweat. His jeans were ripped, revealing a yellow lightning bolt shaped gem on his left thigh, glistening in the light. It was a gem with a large crack down the center. He ran down dimly lit alley ways, looking back every now and then, in terror of the three shadowy figures following him. He turned one more corner, and ran straight into a dead end. 

He fell to the ground, exhausted, his back against the wall. A thought of hiding entered his tired mind, but disappeared at the thought of his stalkers, and their skills in this kind of encounter. All feelings and thoughts left his mind as focused on the sound of three pairs of footsteps, in unison, getting louder and louder. After what seemed like hours, the three dark figures turned the corner and faced him. One was short, the others were tall. 

The man awkwardly smiled at them.  
"You know, for a moment, I thought I'd actually get away from you."  
The three stayed quiet. The man kept talking, his smile shrinking. He couldn't spend his last precious seconds of life in silence.  
"But I guess I forgot who I was running from. You always find a way!"  
He closed his eyes, knowing what was about to happen, and focused on his breathing.  
Breathe in.  
Breathe out.  
Pain.  
He didn't breathe in again.

The crowd stood and applauded. The bright lights turned on from above, illuminating the stage, and the poorly made city street backdrop behind Tom and the three. Tom jumped to his feet, removing the wooden sword from his armpit, and bowed next to his fellow actors. He had to admit, it had been a fun time performing with Sadie, Buck, and Jamie. They bowed again, and walked off stage. They'd done well out there tonight, thought Tom had forgotten his lines at the very end. He observed the faces of his friends. They were grinning, bigger than he had ever seen the grin before. Tom removed the sticker from his gem, noting just how realistic it had looked. He packed everything away, then set off into the night.

Tom had been in Beach City for almost six months since he first came, he first met Steven and the Crystal Gems, and learnt of his mother, and himself. These days he spent his time in one of three places. He was either at the Crystal Temple, learning of Gem history from Pearl, on the Beach performing plays with Jamie, or in the Ancient Sky Arena, learning to fight with Garnet and Amethyst. After his first week in Beach City, he discovered he had inherited his mother's ability to electrically dash. He found this by falling off the cliff, and dashing in the nick-of-time to save his life. In his second month, he summoned his weapon for the first time. It was his mother's boomerang. He was lying on the grass of the lighthouse park, thinking of his future, and how it seemed so safe, and in that moment of confidence, he felt it jutting out of his gem, and he pulled it out. Although all of this was great, it wasn't his crowning moment, not in Tom's eyes.

No, his moment was when Amethyst found Yellow Tourmaline's armor in a trash pile in her room, and Tom decided to try it on for whatever reason, and it fit perfectly. He stood at the cliff's edge, gazing out at the ocean, an orange sunset behind him. He hoped he looked as epic as he felt. The armor was an amazing fit, and as time went on, he found it to be extremely helpful. Bismuth was a very clever gem, she had managed to make the armor so that the wearer could E-Dash around and keep the armor on. As a tradeoff, however, the wearer could summon their weapon while wearing it, as the gem was covered, hence the matching spear.

In his time training, Tom learnt how to use both the spear and the boomerang, both individually, and together. In the beginning, he could barely lift the spear, let alone fight with it, but now, after almost six months, he was running, jumping, and dashing with it, hitting the weak spots and openings in defenses. He used the boomerang as a means of distraction and longer range weak attack, and while the enemy recovered, he'd rush in with the spear and relentlessly stab from a multitude of angles.

Today however, was different, Tom could feel it. Something about today was important, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. He contemplated it for a while as he made his way down the beach to the Crystal Temple. It was a wonderful autumn's morning. It was cool, but not cold enough to make you shiver. As he reached for the door handle, noting the lack of gems he could see through the door, he remembered what it was about today that was special. He stepped in, only now realizing how dark it was. Before he could take a step-

"SURPRISE! Happy birthday!" They all yelled as the came out of their hiding places and the lights turned on. There was a balloon, that Amethyst was holding, Garnet held a cake, and Steven held a present. Pearl stood behind them, observing it all with her smile, the one of a leader watching a carefully crafted battle plan unfold and succeed.

The party was short, but sweet. It was vastly more than Tom had expected. He didn't really celebrate his birthday anymore, as it was also the day that both his parents died. When the party started calming down, Tom was presented with his present. It was small, wrapped in blue paper covered in alien faces, and had a blue bow on top. He began to undo the bow, when Steven told him "It's just meant to look like I spent a lot of time wrapping it."

He pulled the top off the small box, and inside was a small piece of paper with numbers on it. Tom removed it from the box, and looked at it.

"We found a… place a few weeks ago," Garnet said "We thought you might want to take a look."

Tom looked at Garnet, clearly confused. "Why? What's there?"

Garnet and the two other Crystal Gems looked at each other, with a mix of emotions painted on their faces. From what Tom could tell, they were all kinds of sad and nervous at the thought of where they were about to go, but also happy when they looked at Tom.

"Just trust us, Tom." Peal said coldly. "When we get there, you'll know."

Lead by Garnet, they all stood on the warp pad, and warped out. Warping had always made Tom feel uneasy. The possibility of falling out of the stream felt very real to him. He knew that they Crystal Gems would pull him back in if he started to fall out, but that didn't take the fear of it away. They finally were at their destination, and Tom felt a wave of cold and darkness hit him, and as his eyes adjusted to the dark, he found that they were in a cave. It was a rich red, with oranges and other shades thrown in every here and there. There were stalactites and stalagmites everywhere, and as Tom was admiring the scenery, the Crystal Gems moved ahead.

He quickly caught up to them, going around a bend. He looked back, noting how the route to the warp pad was tucked away in one corner of the cave. The Crystal Gems were standing in front of an open door. It was as if the door was split perfectly in two, and the two halves had slid halfway into the walls. On the door was two halves of a diamond with four colored circles, one in each corner. Two were green, one was a light blue, and one was purple. He stepped through the door after Steven and the Crystal Gems, and found himself looking at pitch blackness. Pearl illuminated the room with a light from her gem, and they looked around. It was about the size of an average class room, tables lined the walls, with various experiments on them. Some tables were flipped over, and many vials were shattered on the floor. In one corner, close to the door, there was a cube shaped machine. In the center, there was a lightning bolt shaped indent. Wires and cables poured out of the top, hit the roof, and raced off to the other various machines in the room.

"What were they doing here?" Steven asked. Tom looked to him. He seemed scared of the answer, as if he knew what it would be, but wished it wasn't true.

"Let's find out" Garnet said, as she tapped a machine next to the cube. It hummed, and sprung to life. It seemed to be the main computer of the facility, for it was had a large hologram screen, and some kind of keyboard made of light. Pearl took over at the computer, tapping away. Eventually, a list of recordings appeared on the screen. Pearl let Tom activate the first one, and they all watched. The screen flickered, then it turned to a recording. It was a Peridot, era 1. It seemed so similar to Crystal Gem Peridot, but so different at the same time.

"Log date, 2 06 3. This is Peridot, facet 4D8F cut 9EP. The construction of this scientific facility is finally complete. Well, it's meant to be complete, but the power is nowhere near sufficient for any kind of experiment. A new source of power must be found for any work to be done. I have contacted my superiors and requests a new source, but my request was rejected. It seems that we'll have to find some other source." Garnet pressed the fast-forward button, and it did just that.

"-nd then the Amethyst brought it in! Honestly, these newer gems are getting dumber and dumber by the batch! Why would you bring a traitor inside? Anyway, the shape of the traitor gave me an idea. One that would solve our power issues, and take back the resources wasted on a traitorous clo-" Tom was the one to speed it up this time. His heart was in his feet. He knew why he was here now, what this place was. It how his mother survived. It was where she met his father. His father, the one that lied to him. Lied about his mother, lied about where and how they met. How could he do that? How could he deny Tom his right to at least know his mother's name, let alone who, or what she was. He paused the recordings, and looked back at his friends.

"Could I have a while alone? I need some time to think about all this." The three women nodded in unison, and left. AS the passed through the door way, Garnet turned at called to Steven.

"Steven, stay here with Tom. We'll be back at the temple." Steven nodded, he was frowning. Tom hated it when Steven wasn't happy. He didn't like it when such a sweet young child wasn't beaming his normal smile. Tom turned back to the recordings, and resumed.

"-got a report while I was researching our new little power source, and found something rather interesting. It seems, some device made by the traitors could efficiently and quickly dissipate the form of any gem caught in its radius. Fascinating. If that, or a similar kind of output could be recreated, and weaponized…. Yes, I've got some ideas on how it could work, but it's going to take time. Time I fear we may not have." Tom fast forward again. He was feeling even worse. He didn't know why he was still watching these recordings, there was nothing else for him learn. He noticed that he was coming to the end of the recordings, so he resumed it.

"-ogdate 3 29 3. It's actually happening." The room in the recording was chaotic. Gems were grabbing vials and machinery, the Peridot looked scared. "I can't believe it. They're evacuating the planet. I need to get the data for the gem destabilizer. It's too important to leave behind. My Diamond will be so pleased when it leaves the prototype stage!" There was a call from off screen, and the Peridot looked to its source. "I'm coming! Don't leave without me! Just one more thing to do!"

The Peridot tapped away at the key board for a while. While this was happening, Tom noticed the smell of smoke in the air, and turned to the cube, sitting next to him. Faint smoke was emitting from its top. "I've set up a trap, in case any Crystal Clods decide to poke around here before they all perish." The Peridot continued. "So, if you're hearing this, have a fun annihilation, you CLOD!"

The recording cut, and a yellow light started coming from cube, growing in strength every second. Tom turned to find Steven, who was watching from the door. Tom sprinted, not knowing how much time he had, and he pushed Steven through the door, and looked back. The cube had erupted into flames, but the light kept growing. The sound it made was perplexing. It was screeching, and whining, and charging. Before he could even think of what would it would do, it exploded.

So, Tom was dying. It was as simple as that. The moment felt like hours. He was falling over, in a one-legged matrix pose, but knew he wouldn't have to worry of how hard he hit the floor, corpses usually didn't. The room was bright, really bright. The light burnt him, and made his final breath feel like fire. He felt his skin, his hair, every part of him begin to break apart, cell by cell. He felt his lungs, his heart, and his brain begin to shut down. He was getting sleepy. By now he was half way to the floor, and he was half gone. His sight began to fade, one of the last things he saw was on his right thigh, his lightning bolt gem. It was still intact, unlike the rest of him. It was almost over now, and he had his last thought, and his final breath ended. He thought of the waves, and the sparkling ocean he saw when the final leg of his journey to incineration began.

When Steven was sure the explosion was over, he got up. The doorway to the science facility was burnt. It seems that he only narrowly avoided it, thanks to Tom. Steven walked through, noting how hot the room had become, and how charred and black the walls now were. His face was one of shock, as he could barely register what had just happened. He searched for Tom, and a glint caught his eye. He fell to his knees, looking down at the yellow gem in front of him. He reached out to grab it, but as his fingers touched it, it turned to dust, scattering across the now cold room. Steven was alone now, tears forming in his eyes, as he got up.


End file.
